Make a difference in the lives of children like Paxton today!

Please help us in our goal of getting our son Paxton a service dog. Our son Paxton is eight years old and in 2nd grade. He was diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum just short of his third birthday after we noticed developmental delays. While he struggles in certain areas he has made tremendous progress and makes us very proud every day. Raising a child with different needs is certainly a challenge but it teaches you to celebrate the small things every single day. One of the things that Paxton struggles greatly with is anxiety. Medications have helped but it just takes the edge off and there are days when they don't help at all. We describe having a child with Autism like riding a rollercoaster. You aren't quite sure what you are going to get or what's around the corner the next second. The smallest thing may trigger a meltdown. These moments are truly heartbreaking as we know he is not trying to be defiant, his body is just at war with itself. When these moments occur we have to hang on, grip the bar tight, and pray the end is near. It is no uncommon for Pax and us to be in tears at the end of these "rides."
Lately Paxton's anxiety has caused us to cancel his speech therapy and he couldn't even attend his school's music concert. He has even started darting away from us in public when he gets too anxious and on numerous occasions jumped out of a moving car because he didn't want to go somewhere.

We have recently brought Pax for a few visits to Retrieving Freedom and he lights up when he has interactions with the dogs. He loves to cuddle and tells us it makes him feel better. From the first visit he has talked about the dogs every single day telling us that is all he wants is a service dog. On the second visit Paxton found the same dog and immediately asked him to cuddle with him. We all knew this is what he needed in his life.

Our hope is that a service dog with ease his anxiety, allow him to function in public with more peace, carry on a more functional life, and bring some happiness to him. Thank you for reading his bio and we appreciate you helping us reach our goal.